Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for the 20th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 68th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

No matter what type of manufacturing business you run, you should always be looking for ways to make your operations safer. To start out the new year safely, take a look at a couple of the major causes of incidents in 2014 and see how these accidents could have been prevented.

Doing business directly with Chinese manufacturers is very different from business anywhere else in the world. Failure to understand Chinese business culture may end up with you insulting your prospective supplier without knowing it.

It took just minutes for a flash fire near a bag dump station inside a New Jersey ink plant to set off an orange fireball that engulfed seven workers. Now, after releasing its report of the incident, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is blaming outdated combustible dust regulations for contributing to the accident, and urging OSHA to respond with national rules.

Last fall, the British Royal Navy commissioned a powerful new high-tech frigate so silent that it would be able to sneak up on submarines undetected. The ship, called the Type 26 frigate, has been designated to become “the workhorse” of the British fleet.

When accurate, near real-time channel data is not abundantly available, sales and inventory fall one or two steps behind true customer demand. And there can be devastating results — including poor channel intelligence, delayed incentive payments or overpayments, and occasional massive write-offs caused by excess inventory stuck in the supply chain.

Sampath Kumar, Partner and Global Leader at ISG (Information Services Group) Engineering Services, spoke with IMPO about the important trends and growth within the Engineering Services Outsourcing Market.

Many industries, especially manufacturing, are discovering that business intelligence and more efficient use of large amounts of data help them become more agile and better equipped to respond to ever-changing markets. As a result, many companies have concluded that their legacy ERP systems are simply not up to the task, and these same companies are finding the ideal business solution in cloud-based ERP systems.

When people think of the supply chain, they think trucking and warehouse. On the front lines, they see a need to be physically strong. They see a male-centric role. We don’t necessary think women can do things in the supply chain. We need for people to think differently.

Forklift fleets offer significant opportunities for warehouses and distribution centers to improve their eco-efficiency. One way is to convert from forklifts powered by internal combustion (IC) to electric lift trucks.

Last week, we published "Friendly Robots: The Future Of Advanced Manufacturing," about the creation of Baxter, the manufacturing robot. Here is a look at the purpose behind Baxter, his role in automating manufacturing, his interaction with humans, and his day-to-day work.

Using the data from three lathes in your plant to predict reliability is possible, but using the data from thousands of lathes in operation around the world adds a whole other layer of confidence in the prediction. This is the reason so many manufacturing equipment OEMs are beginning to offer reliability services as part of their product offering.

The most significant results from implementing the lean continuous manufacturing model come not from discrete changes to certain products or processes, but from incorporating the entire company into the lean continuous model journey.